


A Perfect World

by blue_lantern



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 08:37:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2806262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_lantern/pseuds/blue_lantern
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kriem’s life before and after meeting Jake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Perfect World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [whisperbird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whisperbird/gifts).



Things were fine when she was very young. Sure, they weren’t perfect – both of her parents worked around the clock, and she was lonely.  But who ever got a perfect life, anyway?  She was happy, for the most part.  Right up until the day her dolls started moving.

  
The rag doll was limp in her hand, and without even thinking about it she plucked a hair from her head. She stared at is as it turned stiff and sharp between her fingers, just like a needle. And without having to be told, she knew exactly what it was for.  It pierced straight into the head of the doll.  The doll glowed blue for a moment, and Kriem shrieked with delight as its stubby little limbs twitched to life.  It dropped out of her hand onto the floor, and then after a few false starts managed to stand. The doll walked over to her on shaky legs, and looked up at her expectantly with its shiny black eyes.

  
Kriem scooped it up into her arms and ran to find her parents. Her father was out, but she found her mother making herself a cup of tea in the kitchen.

  
“Mama! Mama, look what I can do!” she said, excitedly setting the doll on the floor in front of her.  Nobody else she knew could do something like _this_.

  
“Not now, Kriem,” said her mother, sighing heavily. “I don’t have time…” she said, trailing off as she noticed the doll twitching and trying to right itself on the floor. Kriem gave it a little nudge with her thoughts, and it got itself up and walked towards her mother.

  
Her mother screamed, dropping the teacup on the floor as she backed away from the doll. Hot water and china fragments hit Kriem on her leg.  “What the hell, Kriem?” yelled her mother, kicking the doll away from her.

  
“Mama?” she asked. This wasn’t the reaction she had expected.

  
_“What the hell is wrong with you?”_

 

*******

 

Still, if she had been able to stop herself from using her power, her life might have been normal.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be something of a compulsion.  When they took all her toys away, she started making her own stuffed animals with a button repair kit stolen from her mother’s desk and scraps of old clothes.  They were ugly and misshapen at first, with barely recognizable limbs, but when she lit the spark of life in them it provided the relief she needed.  Afterwards, she realized that the dolls she created with her own two hands were even easier to control that ones that had been bought for her.

  
Her parents didn’t understand in the slightest.  She tried to hide the dolls, but her parents were thorough in their searches, and she was punished when she was she was caught.  The more severely they punished her, the stronger her compulsion to create them, no matter how miserable she was when she was caught and punished again. 

  
Things spiraled like that for years, until one day her parents simply gave up on having a normal daughter.  So long as she kept it in her room and didn’t let anyone outside the family know, they ignored her.  From that point on, it was if she didn’t exist.

  
It hurt, but she went through the motions of waking up, going to school, and coming home every day.  Maybe one day she wouldn’t need to make the stuffed dolls any more.  Maybe one day their disdain would thaw, and she would have a family again.

  
But then she was kidnapped, and nobody came.

 

*******

 

Even after Jake told her she was special, she still felt nervous actually using her power in front of him.  He had a power too, but force fields seemed, well, cool.  Like something a hero would use.  Manipulating toys with your hair, on the other hand, seemed more like something out of a cheap horror movie.

  
“Do you think I’m going to be scared?” he asked her, his mouth curling up in a grin.

  
She flushed a little at that, as he definitely didn’t seem like the time to be scared of anything. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t think she was weird, though. Then again, he had seemed genuinely interested when he had asked, and it seemed rude to refuse him, especially after he had been so kind to her even though she'd turned out to be a massive waste of his time.  

  
She already had a small stuffed bear with her in her jacket, one she’d already made and stuck with a hair antennae, so she pulled it out and willed it to come to life in her hands.  It jumped down on the ground, walked out in front of them, and then turned around to give Jake a little bow.

  
Her full attention was on Jake the entire time, and when he laughed at her bear’s antics she felt the tightness in her chest ease.  
“Can you do more than one at once?” he asked, and she nodded.  “How many?”

  
Kriem blinked.  Nobody had ever asked for details about her powers before.  “Well, the most I’ve ever done was twelve at once.  I can make them act independently, sort of – if I give one a clear goal it’ll go do it without me having to pay attention to it. That makes it easier to do a bunch at once.  But, really, I just never had the opportunity make any more than that.  My parents didn’t like me to have any at all, so I couldn't exactly fill the house with them.”

  
Jake smiled at the bear again as it stood on its head. It had served its purpose, and they were still in public, so Kriem had it come back to her and tucked it back in her jacket.

  
“Say you had as many dolls as you wanted,” he said.  “How many could you do then?”

  
It might have been wishful thinking, but he seemed impressed with her, and she didn’t want to ruin that by looking weak.  At the same time, she didn’t want to ruin it by overstating her abilities and falling flat on her face later.  But deep down she was certain she knew the answer, and her instincts about her powers had always been right before.

  
“Honestly?  I think it’s only limited by the number of hairs I have on my head,” she said.

  
“You know,” he said, and she blushed as he reached over and ruffled her hair, “I’m glad your parents didn’t show up with that ransom. You’re worth way more than I was asking for.”

 

*******

 

After their conversation on the park bench he took her home and waited in the back yard as she collected her things.  Her parents were out, as they usually were, and she was glad.  It would have been difficult to explain what she was doing back, but more than that she just never wanted to see them again.  They had spent nearly her whole life pretending she didn’t exist, and now she intended to return the favor.

  
As she was packing she half convinced herself that he’d stayed outside because he was planning to leave her there, so she sighed in relief when she stepped out the back door and he was still leaning against the same tree she’d left him at.

  
He took her back to his apartment afterwards.  It was small and sloppy, and the fact that it was so unlike her old home made it easier to handle.

  
“Make yourself at home,” he said as she unpacked her things.  “I have to go take care of some business.  I’ll be back in about an hour.”

  
“You’re just going to leave me here?” she asked, surprised.  He was a wanted criminal who had only hours ago been trying to ransom her, and he was going to leave her alone is his home?

“Why? Are you planning to run away?” he asked. She was surprised how unconcerned he sounded about it.

“No!” she said.  She had every intention of being there when he came back, she was just surprised that he was so quick to trust her by herself. 

"Don't worry," he said, "I'll be back."  

So he left her there, and she resisted the urge to sift through his things while he was gone.  She was curious, but it seemed like a violation of his trust to snoop.  So instead she satisfied herself looking at what he had on the walls and on his counters, not prying into any cabinets or boxes.  

As she walked through the rooms, she realized that she could see herself living here. 

 

*******

 

For two weeks she stayed inside the apartment and did not go out.  She slept in his bed, or at least she tried to, but it was difficult to get much rest when she spent her nights wrapped up in sheets that still smelled like him.  Jake napped splayed out on the couch when he bothered to sleep at all.  They watched a lot of television, most of it news, and the whole two weeks there was not a single mention of a wealthy family missing a daughter.

  
During those two weeks, he told her everything.  He explained Ouroboros to her, and he explained his mission.  He told her the names of his contacts and the names of politicians who were on their payroll.  She was given bank account numbers, passwords, and even a flash drive full of blackmail material on people she’d seen on television since she was little.  He didn't hesitate to tell her about  men that he had killed, and she surprised herself by not being scared at all.  

  
Most importantly, he taught her that the fear her powers inspired in others wasn’t something she should be ashamed of.  It was something she should revel in.

  
“It’s probably safe for you to go out now,” he said, after they were certain her face wasn’t going to pop up on the news. “Here’s a credit card.  You can buy whatever you need.  Don’t worry about the cost.  I don’t think you could hit the limit if you tried.”

  
Kriem took the credit card in her hand and blinked.  It finally dawned on her that after having known her for less than a month, he had given her all the information she needed to go to the police and have his whole organization taken down, and now he was sending her out on her own with access to more money than she’d ever been responsible for before.

  
She had no intention of betraying him, of course.  It had been the best two weeks of her life so far.  Still, the amount of trust that was being placed in her made her hands tremble.

  
“Why are you giving me all this?” she asked, card clenched in her hand. Immediately, she wished she hadn’t said anything at all. What if just asking made him question her?

  
Instead, he just laughed at her.  “Ah, Kriem, do you want to know a secret?”

  
Kriem blinked in confusion. “Um, yes?”  After all, anything he wanted to tell her, she wanted to know.

  
“I don’t have to trust people,” said Jake.  “I _know_ you’re not going to betray me.”

  
Kriem frowned. “I don’t understand.”

He took her hips in his hands and tugged her flush with him, making her squeak in surprise. “I can hear your thoughts.”

  
“What?” she asked. The answer didn’t make sense. Or maybe it did make sense, but the proximity of his body to hers was making it difficult for her brain to fire on all cylinders.

  
“Even for a NEXT, I’m special. I can create force fields, and most people think that’s all I can do. But even before I was able to do that, I was able to hear the thoughts of people around me. That’s why I know you’re not going to run off on me,” he said, and tapped her on her forehead.  “I know you better than you know yourself, Kriem.  And I know you’re going to be perfect.”

  
Kriem could feel her heart swell.  She wasn’t used to being complimented, or acknowledged, and after the past few weeks she was practically drunk off all the attention he had given her. And then, as his explanation sunk in, her mind flashed to some of the things she had thought in his presence over the past few weeks.  Her already flushed face immediately got redder.

  
Jake chuckled low and deep. “That’s right,” he said, letting his hands drift lower and then pulling her even closer.  “I know everything you want, too.”

  
“Ah,” sighed Kriem, and then her mind blanked out completely as his mouth covered hers.

 

*******

 

  
If she had wanted, she could have walked into any store in Sternbild and spent enough money on a new wardrobe to make a pop star jealous. Instead, the first thing she bought was an antique sewing machine. The little old lady who sold her the machine recommended a fabric store down the road, and Kriem went in and bought so much she had to make three trips to get it all back to the apartment.

  
New clothes were easy to make, as she was already pretty handy with a sewing machine.  Making her own hats, shoes, and glasses took a while to get right, but she didn’t mind.  It was worth it, having everything just the way she wanted, and for the way Jake complimented her on every finished creation.

  
In between clothes, she made dolls. Stuffed bears were her favorites, and even now that she had all the fabric she could use she still liked to make them with scraps and patches.  It made them feel more like they were hers.  She made normal toys too, perfectly average brown stuffed bears and bunnies and puppies.  Whatever the pampered children of Sternbild’s rich and famous wanted, she made, and Jake made sure they ended up in the right hands.

  
Late at night they all visited her, bringing her and Jake little presents.  Photos, bank numbers, and all sorts of amazing things people thought were safely locked away in their homes.

  
Both of them did most of their work at night, slept until noon and then spent the afternoon on the couch watching television.  Most days they watched the news.

  
Today a large angry man on the news was raging against the threat of NEXT.  If they flipped channels long enough they could always find somebody raging against NEXT.  “Why, out of all the money we spend on NEXT research, is so little of it spent trying to inoculate or cure the condition?  The government hasn’t even put together a proper monitoring system yet.  Do you really want a kid who can set fires with his eyes being taught in the same classroom as your children?”

  
Same exact talking points as last night’s pundit, noted Kriem.  She’d heard it so often it was hard to even get angry anymore.  
“Look at him,” sneered Jake. “So sad he can’t do anything, so he has to try and tear down people who can.”

  
The kind of people who got on TV and railed against NEXT used to scare Kriem, but they’d never scared Jake, and his bravery had rubbed off on her.  Thinking back, she didn’t understand why she’d been afraid in the first place.  A normal human couldn’t control dolls like she could.  They couldn’t read her mind, or kill her with a well-placed force-field, or freeze her flesh, or do anything all to hurt her.

  
“It’s so sad,” she said. The pundit was getting visibly red under the studio lights as he worked himself up.

  
“I guess we’ll just have to put him out of his misery, won’t we?”

  
“Oh, Mr. Jake,” said Kriem. “You’re always so kind.”

  
Last night’s pundit had suffered a terrible car accident.  The police were still investigating, as it wasn’t immediately clear what had caused him to lose control of his vehicle, and they unfortunately couldn’t just ask the driver. Too much brain damage.

  
They’d have to think up something different for tonight’s pundit. Variety was the spice of life, after all.

 

*******

 

She put her fist straight through the TV when the news broke that Jake had been arrested.  She hadn’t even realized it was possible to have this much rage inside one person.  It felt like her skin was going split open and lava was going to come pouring out.  One of their contacts from Ouroboros showed up a few minutes later, and she raged at him as she threw their belongings into her suitcases.

  
“It’s not exactly my fault, lady,” he said, and she threw a bear at him.  She would have rather ripped his head off, but for all she knew the police were on their way, and she had more important things to deal with.

  
“You should have told me sooner!” she screamed. “He shouldn’t have even been caught in the first place!  Mr. Jake was always careful. Orouboros must have a leak somewhere.”

  
“Fine, fine, we’ll look into that later,” he said. “Right now you need to get all your weapons and cash so we can blow this joint before we join him in lock up.”

  
“Well if I hadn’t had to find out from the _news_ , maybe I could have been gone already,” she said.  She ignored his advice - guns and money were easily replaceable, especially for a woman of her talents.  She grabbed Jake’s things instead, his favorite coat, his tools, his journals.  She couldn’t bear the thought of anyone else having them.

  
After that, she set up in a new apartment, and made sure she moved every few weeks. The fact that Jake had been caught meant that nobody could be trusted.

  
A few years ago, if she had been faced with a trauma of this severity she would have curled up in her bed and thought long and hard about killing herself.  But she wasn’t just a little girl anymore, and so instead she stayed up late into the early morning stitching her bears until her fingers bleed for days on end.  Some of them she sent out into the world, and even though it took an excruciatingly long time, they eventually brought back signs of affection for the mother that gave them life – prison plans, guard schedules, explosives.  All the things she needed.

  
Most of them stayed with her, at least for the first few months.  Eventually she found a local distributor, and soon she was finding it difficult to keep up with demand.

  
It was hard, putting together an army with her own two hands, but she managed.

  
Each stitch calmed her down, and each bear brought to life made her feel a little less alone. This was just a setback, after all. It wasn’t permanent. Other people might have given up, but not Kriem. Kriem was going to see him again.

  
She was going to make sure of it.

 

*******

 

It took far too long, but she managed it.  She managed it marvelously.  And all her lingering doubts, those worries that maybe prison would change him, that maybe he wouldn’t be her Mr. Jake anymore once he got out, all of that fell away when she saw him again.

“Ah, Kriem,” he said, wrapping his fingers in her hair. “I was waiting for you.”

  
She almost cried, she was so happy.  Three long years of suffering and toil, and now she had her reward, and it was _perfect_.  At least, it would have been perfect if they had a few weeks to spend alone together, but they were professionals, and business came first.  The gears were already in motion, and there was no time to slow down.

Still, she was so excited as she explained the plan that she was worried he wouldn’t be able to follow her babble, but she shouldn’t have worried.  He understood her just fine, his fingers digging deeper into her hips as she went on and on about the devastation she had planned.

“This time it’s not just going to be a few people, a politician here and a businessman there,” he said.

  
“Oh, no,” she said, breathless from excitement.  She sighed as he kissed her neck.  “This time it’s going to be _everyone_.  The whole city will be watching, Mr. Jake!  The whole world, even!  And they won’t be able to do a thing to stop it.  They’ll go to bed and they’ll wake up the next day in a new world.  One where you’ll be the king!”

“And you’ll be my queen,” he said.

And, finally, everything would be perfect.


End file.
